The Other Hawk
by Shinigami Goddess
Summary: Clint has a secret that is so deep, that not even Natasha Romanov knows of it and Captain Steve Rogers just happens to come across it.
1. Chapter 1

Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, has been cooped up in one of the many SHIELD bases over looking the work of Dr. Erik Selvig and his team on the blue glowing cube of power or Tesseract as all the scientists guys call it. He sat himself up on the highest and farthest cat walk he could find on the other side of the room as he watched over them. He had been here a month and he was about to go crazy with boredom but being there gave him time to think and a lot of the time, that was not a good thing.

He started to think about his past, how the only person he could count on was his sister. They never knew their mother, she died in child birth. They had an older brother but he left them with their father while he left home to get away. They were too young to understand that what he was doing was wrong, with the beatings and training. Their father thought it was a great idea to turn his mirrored twins into contract killers. He started their training as soon as they were able to walk, so they didn't know anything else. To them, this was normal. At the age of five was when things started to get out of control. One of their father's 'friends' gave him something that was to make you more focused, stronger, faster but it was a trial drug; so he tried it on his kids first. Since then he was harder on them, training them in combat, knives, guns and the family weapon, a bow. When they were 8, he took them out on their first mission and Clint was shown his target and he questioned why, when he was told to just shoot he did and missed and then his sister was made to take out the target for him. Once they were back home, their father took a switch and went to strike Clint in the face for missing his target but his sister jumped in the way and the switch cut into her hand where she held it up to block the blow. She screamed before their father grabbed her and threw her away from Clint. _"Crysta!"_ He yelled out to her. He looked back at his father just in time to see the switch coming down at him and held his hand up to block it and it cut into his hand as well.

Clint clenched his hand at the memory as he came back and looked around and took notice that Fury had walked into the room. Another thought was that he needed to see if he could find his sister once this job was over with. Thanks to what their father did to them, they had a connection that allowed them to know if the other was in trouble and he hadn't gotten anything from their connection but he knew that she was there for him when he needed it. There were several times that he would turn for an attack and already see them down with an arrow through them. He would look everywhere for her but he could never find her, he hasn't seen her since SHIELD picked him up when he was 15. As he walked towards Fury and looked at the cube, he was starting to get a bad feeling about this job.

"Thought I told you to keep an eye on them." Fury said.

"I see better from a distance, sir." Clint said as he walked over to Dr. Selvig with Fury.

"The good Doctor tells me that it's acting up, care to explain what you've seen Agent Barton?" Fury raised a brow.

"In my opinion, it's a door way and something's trying to come through from the other side." he said. When Fury gave him a look, he went on. "A door opens from both side, and in this last week it would seem that someone or something has been knocking really loud." he turned to his side and whispered to Fury. "Sir, I'm getting a really bad feeling about this. We need to shut it down before it's to late."

"As much as I value you opinion, Agent Barton, I will not be pulling this project." Fury said. Clint sighed and was about to protest but the cube started to act up again, in a big way.

All the scientist started running around, taking data and freaking out. Then a beam shot out of the cube to the corner of the room. "Shut it down!" Fury yelled at them. "We've tried, but the cube is pure energy, it just turned itself back on. Someone else is controlling it."

"What do you mean, 'someone'? Who?!" Fury yelled. A portal was starting to open from the beam coming from the cube. Agents started to run down to the room to try and protect the scientist from what may come from the portal. Clint was right in the front of them with his gun, since they wouldn't allow him with his bow in here.

Once that man or so called 'God' fell through the portal, all hell broke loss when Fury told him to put down his glow stick. Clint rolled out of the way when he sent some strange blast at the group of agents and he started to fire his gun but it would seem that none of their bullets were getting through. Before Clint could figure out what was going on, the 'God' was in front of him and had knocked his gun out of his hand and held his arm. Clint went for his other gun and almost had it half way pointed to the 'God's' head when he felt a sharp pain in his chest and a creeping cool electric feeling spread through him and it was almost like he couldn't breath a first and then his mind clouded over and he tried to fight it, something was trying to make him loose focus on what he was doing and why. The next thing Clint was aware of, was that he was watching and saying things that he would never do. Loki, the 'God' that came through the portal, told him to drop Fury and he did. Even though Clint would never do that himself, he would be lying if he didn't say that he felt good shooting him.

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Two months ago, a woman found herself wondering around the city of New York. She had this feeling that this was were she was needed, she didn't know why yet but she had a feeling that it had to do with her brother. As she walked the streets, she saw someone else who seemed almost as lost as she felt in this city. She couldn't help but smile a bit as she walked over to him. "Excuse me," she said as she came around to his side. He looked at her and gave her a small smile back. "I'm sorry to bother you but you seem as lost in this city as I feel." He chuckled a bit. "You have no idea ma'am." She smiled when he spoke. She held her hand out to him. "I'm Crysta. Crysta Barton." She gave him a sweet smile. "Rogers, Steve." He said as he shook her hand. "Oh, a military man. So I take that this is your first time back in a long while from the looks you're giving this place." She said with a sad smile. "Yes ma'am, you can stay that. Everything is just so different from when I left." He looked around sadly. "Well, since I'm new in the city, what do you say to getting a drink and we both figure our way around the city?" She smiled kindly to him. He smiled back at her and took her to a cafe that he had been to a few days ago.

Since that day, you could find the two always together. She told him that she didn't know how long she was going to be in the city so he offered for her to stay at his place and after a bit of argue with her she finally folded staid with him. You could either find them in the park on a run together, at the cafe or at a local gym but they were always smiling. Crysta had never allowed herself to become close to other people because of her lifestyle; ever how short it was, she could feel herself falling for Steve. She even told him that she had a twin brother and he was the reason she was here in the city; because it was this feeling she had, she needed to be here. He didn't question it or think she was crazy. He explained the reason was because of a twin's feeling about his brother that they were able to find his brother's platoon before anything really bad happened to them. It was half way into the second month that Steve had kissed her. A week later had found them in the same bed together.

They were sleeping, Steve had his arm draped of her stomach as they slept. Crysta jerked awake, gasping for breath as she grabbed her chest as she shot up in bed. It woke Steve up and he looked at her worriedly. He placed a hand on her back. "Crys?" He called her name questionably. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" After a moment, she was able to breath again. Taking in deep slow breaths, she finally looked at him with sad worried eyes. "It's my brother. He's in trouble." She whispered as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and started to pull her clothes on. Steve got up and pulled his pants on. "Crys, how are you going to be able to help him? You don't even know where he is?" His last statement came out more of a question. Crysta pulled her shoes on before walking over to him and kissing him deep and loving, running her fingers through his hair. Making a promise that she was coming back to him. "I have my ways, Steve. We all have our secrets." She said when she saw the questionable look in his eyes. He nodded his head and walked her to the door and gave her another kiss before she walked out the door.

Steve was a little wary about her; he could feel there was something that she wasn't telling him but then again, there were things that he wasn't telling her. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, so he dressed and went to the gym. He grabbed his smart phone on his way out; Crysta made him get it and taught him how to use it. She never question him about why he didn't understand half the technology that he asked about and it just made him love her more.

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Crysta went to her storage block and started to gear up, it was still dark so no one would see her when she left. She changed her clothes, pants that looked tight as leather, a tank top with a leather like vest over it and knee high boots. She cover that up with a trench coat with a silver gray sash around her waist before putting her belt of knives and bullets on. She had more weapons strapped on her leg but there were hided thanks to the coat. And more behind her at her lower back, but again hidden. (Think Assassin's Creed Altair) Everything she wear was black in some shade or another. It helped her hide in the shadow's more. As she walked out of the storage unit, she put her quiver on her back and grabbed her bow; pulling her hood over her head and started to make her way to where she knew she would be able to get some answers.


	2. Chapter 2

It took Crysta a better part of the day to find a way to get on the ship where the man she needed to question was; Agent Phil Coulson of Shield. When she found out that Shield was on to them, or at least onto Clint, she told him to be more careful with his targets, but he never did listen. They both lived by one important rule; if caught, the other never existed. You don't let your enemy know about the other, ever.

Once she was on the ship, she looked around and was about to jump in an air vent when she heard a familiar voice. She moved around one of the air crafts and stayed hidden as she looked around to see Steve. _'Well, that takes blowing up the craft of__f __the list.'_ She thought to herself as she moved quickly and into one of the air vents and moved her way through the ship, looking for her Agent Coulson. As she was making her way through the vent, her phone buzzed against her and she quickly pulled it out and saw that it was Steve that was calling her.

"Hey, Steve. How are you doing?" She answered her phone with a smile.

"Doing fine. Finally got a call in for a job, so I'm off working." he said. She couldn't help but smile bigger. At least he was sticking as close to the truth as he could. "How's the hunt for your brother going?"

"Not good so far. I'm still digging." She looked around corners as she went through the large ventilation system. "Doesn't seem that there is much I can find."

"I'm sorry about that, Crys. I hope you can find him." Steve sounded worried for her. "If you need help in finding him, please call me and I'll help in anyway that I can."

Crysta couldn't help but smile. "You are helping me, Steve. Just by being you, you are helping me." She looked out the vent and saw Steve walking by while talking to her on the phone. "Just don't stop being the man that I've fallen in love with." She smiled when she saw Steve stop and almost trip over his own feet. And the look on his face was enough to make her smile even more lovingly at the man. "I have to go Steve." She said and hung up before he could say anything. Steve still hadn't moved or closed his mouth.

A red headed woman came up to him. "Rogers, is everything alright?" She asked him. Steve cleared his throat and closed his phone as he looked to the red head. "Uh...uh, yeah." He put his phone up, and a small smile spread across his face. "Yeah. Everything is great, Miss Romanov." He said as he continued walking to where he was going.

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It was weird being stuck in your own head. You could see and hear everything that was going on but you know that you would never do these things on your own. All you knew was obeying orders and you couldn't fight it, no matter how hard you screamed silently in your head. You don't even know how long you've been locked away as your body is busy following orders.

Loki had Clint going around finding other people to help them locate and build something that he didn't want anything to do with, but it wasn't important for him to know. All he needed to know was what he could do next to help Loki in his mission. He had no idea if he been with Loki for days or hours. All he really knew was the longer that Loki had him trapped in his own mind, the harder it was getting to see and hear everything around him.

He kept screaming, trying to push himself out of his head but he got nowhere. As he pushed to try and open his mind back to his body, a small light off to the side of him appeared. He went to the light in hopes that he finally broke his small prison.

As he got closer to the light, he could hear a voice; a female voice. _~Where are you Clint? Where could you be?"~_ That didn't sound like Nat to him and he only knew of one other woman who would worry about him. "Crysta?" He called her name and he felt surprise and shock and he knew it wasn't him. "Crysta, can you hear me?" he sounded a bit panicked when he could hear the woman's thoughts anymore. _~Clint? Is that you?"_~ Clint cried out happily. "Crysta, thank god. I've been screaming for so long." _~Where are you and how are you able to talk to me in my head?~_ He could hear and feel the worry from her. "I….I don't know. On both accounts. This Loki guy has taken me over and I'm locked in my head. How long have I been gone?" He asked. She didn't answer him back for a moment. "Crysta?" He was getting worried that the connection had been lost. _~A week.~_ "Well, that explains why it's becoming harder to fight for control and see what I'm doing."

There was silence in their thoughts for a while. _~Clint?~ _Crysta's thoughts came through to him. "I'm still here, don't worry Crysta." Clint said a little happily, he himself was wondering if the connection had been lost or not. "So, I'm going to take a big guess and say that you have confronted Shield?" There was a chuckle though the link. _~Close. I'm wondering around the air ducts, cat walks and crawl spaces of the air carrier. So, want to tell me about this red head who seems to be stressing out more about you being compromise?_ He wasn't sure how to answer that question. He thought about Nat for a second. _~Hey, I saw that!~_ Crysta's voice came though surprised. "Really? Wow. That is so cool." _~It is and that was the girl I was asking about.~_ "Well, that's Nat. Natasha Romanov, she's my partner in most missions." _~And your girlfriend.~_ Crysta added to him. He was going to fight with her about it till she spoke again. _~You can't lie to me, Clint. You never could. Even with this new thing we have right now, you can't lie to me.~_

Before Clint could make any comment to that something started going on; a bit of the blue veil that kept him in his mind was thinning a bit and he could hear what was going on and he could see the scientists and a tablet that he seemed to be working on. "Crysta, somethings going on." _~What's going on?~_ "I'm not really sure yet but it seems that Loki has the scientist building something and I'm searching for something that they need." Clint focused on what his body was seeing and hearing to see if he was able to allow Crysta to see and hear with him.

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"It's very hard to get your hands on." Dr. Selvig said from in a small made room of plastic.

"Especially if Shield knows you need it." Clint said. "I didn't even know." Dr. Selvig said. Selvig look over Clint's shoulder and smiled and walked closer to the plastic.

"Hey." Dr. Selvig said as Loki walked closer to the plastic off small room that the Doctor was in. "The Tesseract has shown me so much, it's more than knowledge; it's truth." Dr. Selvig smiled at Loki like he was glad he was under the power.

"I know." Loki said. "What did it tell you, Agent Barton?" Loki turned to look at Clint.

"My next target." Clint said as he turned to face Loki.

"Tell me what you need." Loki said. Clint started to walk away over to a table and opened up a case. "I need a distraction." Clint told him as he pulled out his bow and popped it open before looking at him. "And an eyeball."

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The veil started to thicken again and Clint lost focus. "I'm going to do something terrible, Crysta. An I can't stop myself."

_~Your Shield is trying to locate you and this Loki person. They even called in my boyfriend for hel__p__.~_ Crysta told him. The last part was a slip of the mind.

"Boyfriend?" Clint was a little stunned. "Wait, Shield called him in. So he's an Agent?"

_~Not really.~ _Crysta said and then all of a sudden, Clint was seeing pictures of a tall, well build guy with nice hair. Seemed kind of old fashion a bit. Then it changed to that same guy looking a suit that looked like it belonged to Captain America.

"Wow, wow, wow, wow… You're telling me that your boyfriend is Captain America?" Clint asked a bit baffled

_~Yeah, he doesn't know that I know yet, and he doesn't know that much about me either.~ _Crysta said a bit sad. _~I haven't known him long but Clint, I don't want to lose him.~_

"You know, it's been ten years since we last saw one another and we're acting like we saw each other just a few months ago." Clint laughed. He fell silent for a while.

_~We'll get you back, Clint.~ _Crysta told him with determination.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve was wandering around the bridge, looking out the massive windows at the sky and the water down below them. He looked around him at all the people at the different monitors that were keeping the ship in the air and others who were searching for their missing agent and Loki. He walked by one of the monitors and saw the missing agent and had to stop for a moment and just look at the picture of the agent. "Is that who Loki got?" he asked the man who was at the monitor.

"Yes sir. This is Agent Clint Barton." The man said. Steve couldn't help but noticed the similarity between Clint and Crysta. Natasha walked up beside Steve and looked at the monitor. "Does he have any family? Siblings?" Steve asked the man and this caused Natasha to look at him with a raised brow. "Uh, no sir. He doesn't." The man raised a brow at Steve's question. Steve only nodded his head and walked away from the monitors and off the bridge.

He pulled his phone out and just looked at it for a moment. He was kind of hoping that Shield's Agent Barton was Crysta's brother but he knew that just because you have the same last name doesn't mean you're related. He kind of hoped that it was the same person Crysta was looking for; how ever slim those chances were. He texted her to call him when she could before putting his phone back into his pocket.

When he turned back around to walk back to the bridge, he came face to face with Natasha Romanov. "Ms. Romanov." He greeted her.

"What's with you Rogers?" She asked him.

"I'm sorry?" He asked back, confused.

"You've been looking at your phone since we picked you up, you're a man from the 40's who woke up from ice only months ago. Then you ask about Agent Barton's family?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you up to, Rogers?"

He raised a brow at her. "Believe it or not, Ms. Romanov but I am a fast learner. The thing about his family?" He said as he waved his hand towards the bridge. "I was concerned that his family doesn't even know where he is and they could be getting worried." His thoughts went back to Crysta for a moment, knowing that she was worried about her brother. His ringing phone brought him out of his thoughts and Natasha just looked at him. He pulled his phone out and looked at Natasha. "I did get myself a life, Agent Romanov." he answered his phone and turned his back to Natasha. "Hey, Crys, how is everything going?"

_"You're around other people, aren't you."_ Crysta asked him.

Steve looked behind him to see Natasha still looking at him. "Yes I am." He said and turned back around and started to walk away. "Look, I wanted to talk to you about what you're searching for but I don't think it's a good idea over the phone and I don't know when I'm going to be done with this job." He said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

_"__Do you have anywhere private you can go, where there's no security watching?"_ Crysta's question made Steve stop for a moment and wonder why she would be asking about security. Did she even know where he was? "Uh, yeah." He sounded a little unsure as he made his way through the flying military base to the bunkers. Once he was in his assigned bunk, he made sure there was no cameras that he could see. "I'm alone now." _"Good."_ Was all she said and then hung up on him. Steve looked at his phone for a moment, slightly confused. He turned his head up when he heard something coming from the vents. The next thing he knew, a person in all black was standing in front of him. He was about to attack till he heard her voice.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's just me." She said as she took her hood down and Steve could see that it was Crysta.

He looked at her confused, "What….How? What are you doing here? Who are you, really?" He stepped out of a fighting stance but he was ready if he had to attack, even if he didn't want to.

Everything about Crysta said that she was relaxed as she stood there and looked at Steve. "Everything I told you about myself, it's true. I never once lied to you."

Steve waved his hand over her. "And this?"

"This." She said as she turned around for him to show her uniform off. "Is a secret that I couldn't tell civilians but I was going to break that rule and tell you. I wanted you to know everything about me but I kept telling myself that we had only known each other for on a couple of months, I didn't know if it would push you away or not." She had sadness in her eyes as she waited for him to either allow her to explain or for him to turn her in to Fury.

Steve looked her over for a moment before running his hand through his hair. "Well, I guess I never really told you about my past, either. Though there have been a few times I have wanted to tell you but..." He chuckled lightly and waved at her before slapping his leg. "I didn't know how you would have taken it." He smiled slightly as he looked at and she smiled back at him.

She sat down on his bed and looked up at him. "Well, I guess it's a good enough time as any to have a talk, since we're both stuck on this flying death trap of a base." She smiled as he walked over and sat down next to her.

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Steve told Crysta all about his past. From growing up in Brooklyn to the German Scientist who made him what is today. Crysta was holding his hand by the time he got to the part where he lost his best friend and brother Bucky. She sat quietly as he told her his fight with Schmit and having to take the plane down to save all of New York. He looked at her and gave her a small smile. "I had only just woken up a few days before I ran into you."

She smiled back at him. "You really were a soldier who just came back home." She giggled lightly. She calmed down and a sad smile was now on her face as she looked at their joined hands. "Guess it's my turn now." She was quiet for a while before Steven squeezed her hand and gave her a gentle smile. She smiled lightly back at him. "My brother and I were raised to be assassins." She started. Steve was a little shocked to hear that but held his words to himself and squeezed her hand. "Our mother died in child birth. We don't really know who's older." She shrugged with a slight scuff. "I can't remember a time when I didn't have a weapon in my hand. When we were five, our father gave us a shot and it was painful; we were sick for a while and he kept making us work and train through the sickness. After a while, we got better; at everything. Training became easier for us so he made it harder. We knew things that no five year old should know or understand but we did. Then again we were doing things that no five year old should ever do." She shook her head as she thought back on some of the things that her and Clint did. "We traveled around in a circus to track our targets." She took her right glove off and looked at the scar. "My brother missed his target and I was made to take them out when he didn't. Once we got back to were we staying at the time, he went to strike him and I jumped in front of my brother and took the blow. I was tossed aside before he struck him." She looked up at Steve. "We were eight." She was quiet for time, Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We've been able to feel each others pain or just know that the other was there. We could feel one another, we thought this was normal for the longest time till after we finally got away from our father."

"So that's how you knew that he was in trouble?" Steve asked. Crysta nodded her head.

"I felt the pain that he was going through, the sharpness in his chest the fogginess that was trying to take him over then everything just went numb." She grabbed at her chest as she remember the pain from that early morning. Steve just sat and listened. "What's your brother's name?" He asked her.

"Clint." She said, taking in a breath. "Agent...Clint Barton….. of Shield."

"How does Shield know about your brother but not you?" Steve asked.

"Clint got onto Shield's radar, I stayed in the shadows." She stood up and stretched. "We have a code. If one is caught, then the other no longer exist." Steve just raised a brow at her but he understood. "I told him to keep his head low, that he was getting the attention of others but he didn't listen."

"So, because you stayed in the shadow's and Agent Barton never told anyone about you, you're just in the wind?" Steve asked.

Crysta shook her head. "Yes and no. I'm in the wind when it comes to Shield. I'm just some random Barton in the world of Barton's. But I am in business in a guild of assassin's." She smiled a little cheeky at him. "But I was always there when he need me." The smile dropped. "I don't understand why I wasn't in the right place this time." Her voice trail off as she tried to think of why she wasn't there for Clint.

Steve stood up and walked over to her. "Hey, It's not all that bad is it? I mean you met me and got me back out in the world." He rested his hands on her shoulders. "Our time couldn't have been all that bad." He gave her a slight sad smile, trying to cheer her up.

"You're….. you're not rejecting me? You're accepting me and my crazy life?" She looked and sounded like she couldn't believe this was happening.

Steve just shrugged. "Well, you did accept me and all my craziness." He brought one of his hands up to her cheek and looked her in the eyes, smiling lovingly. "And I love you, Crysta. Past and all." He watched as a teary smiled spread on her face and he leaned down to take her lips with his as she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull herself closer to him.


	4. Chapter 4

Clint and a few of the men that he helped to recruit for Loki were lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right time to strike the guards to reach their target. Once Clint saw his opening, he fired his first arrow and then another. Everyone moved in as the man fell off the top of the building. They looked around for any other guard and took care of them if there were. Clint pulled something out of a bag that had looked to have three long prongs, once he placed it over the eye scanner, he pushed a button on the end of the handle. All he had to do now was wait.

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Steve was in an air craft with Agent Romanov somewhere over Germany, in his new uniform. He watched as peopled started running and screaming out of a building, soon followed by a tall thin man whose form glowed slightly and his clothes changed. "Is that him?" Steve asked. "It would seem so Cap." Natasha said. Steve watch Loki gather people in the square, demanding them to kneel before him. When he was about to fire his strange staff at an elderly civilian, he grabbed his shield and hit a button to open the back hatch of the air craft and jump. He landed just in time to deflect the blast right back at Loki.

_"__You better hurry up, Captain. Fury just called Stark in."_ Steve heard Crysta's voice over his ear piece. He was confused for a second. _"Don't worry, you're the only one who can hear me."_ She said.

Steve stood up and started walking over to Loki. "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above all the rest…...we ended up disagreeing." Loki started laughing, this caused Steve to stop short and watch him slowly stand up. "The Soldier. A man out of time." Steve just tilted his head slightly. "I'm not the one who's out of time."

The air craft that Steve had jumped out of was now hovering up behind him with Natasha's voice coming from a loud speaker. _"Captain, Stark is about half way there, you better take him down before he comes to show off."_ Crysta's voice rang softly in his ear. That's when Loki fired at the air craft and Steve went into action and tried throwing him off by throwing his shield at him. As their fight began, the civilians ran.

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Crysta was exploring the restricted areas, only the higher levels of agents were allowed. It was the only place, in the week that she had been here, that she hadn't searched yet. She found files on 0-8-4; confused, she looked through them to see what they were. _~What are you doing, Crysta?~_ She heard Clint voice in her head. _~"Trying to see if they have any secret files on you."~_ She told him as went to another section. _~Loki's got something planned, he wants to get caught.~_ He said with caution.

She found some files that were back in the 1940's. She flipped through them and found them to be some Germany doctor's notes on a super soldier serum. As she flip through them she found the notes on one Steven Grant Rogers. Even his military files and an old picture from before the serum, she smiled. As she continued she found files about naming the first 0-8-4's, taking and storing Hydra weapons. She put the files done and went to find a computer to look to see where she could find these weapons. As she searched for the weapons, she searched for Clint in her head. _~ "You know anything about this?"~_ She asked him as she searched.

_~That's level 7 and up stuff but I overheard Fury talking about it a few time. Phase two, he called __it__.~_ Clint said after seeing all that Crysta had showed him. _~Try some of the secure section__s__, you might find what you__'__r__e__ looking for there.~_ She went in search of the where Clint told her, all the while listening closely to what was going on through the earpiece.

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"He grows you, doesn't he." Bruce commented after watching the live feed from where Fury was locking Loki up in Bruce's Hulk cage.

Steve just looked at the table where they had all watched or heard the video of Loki and Fury's speeches. "Loki's going to drag this out." He looked up at Thor, supposed brother of Loki. "Thor, what's his play?"

Thor seemed deep in though before he spoke. "He has an army." his deep voice spoke. "Called The Chitauri. They are unknown on any world that I know. He means to lead them against your people; they will win him the earth. In turn for the Tesseract, I suppose."

"An army?" Steve asked. Then he looked at Natasha then to Bruce. "From outer space?" He asked the next part. _~"And you're just a super soldier made from a serum that only the dead know what was in it."~_ Crysta's voice rang through his ear. He pulled out his phone and text her. She chuckled. _~"I'm snooping around, my dear Captain."~_ He tried his best to not smile.

"He's going to build another portal." Bruce spoke up. "That's what Erik Selvig's for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce told him, not knowing that Thor already knew him.

"He's a friend." Thor told them. Bruce nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha said, speaking for the first time since they walked back onto the ship. "Along with one of our own." She sighed slightly and her eyes harden a bit, no one noticed but Steve did.

"Can we get back on topic?" Steve asked. "I think we need to figure out why Loki let us take him. I mean, he's not leading an army from that glass cage." He looked at everyone else.

"I don't think we should putting our focus on Loki." Bruce said.

"I think we do." Steve said. "We need to know his game."

"That guy's brain is a bag of cats." Bruce said. "You can smell crazy on him."

Thor got angry and walked closer to the table. "Take care how you speak." He growled out. "Loki maybe beyond reason but he **is** of Asgard and he's my brother."

"He killed 80 people in two days." Natasha said as she looked at Thor, who only blinked for a moment to let that set in. "He's adopted." Thor finally said. Steve rubbed his face.

"It's got to be something else." Bruce said, getting back on topic. "Why go through all the trouble to get the iridium, why do they need the iridium?"

"Stabilizing agent." Tony Stark said as he walking onto the bridge with Agent Coulson. Stark continued to have his conversation with Coulson as they walked further into the room. He turned to them when Coulson walked away. "It means that the portal wont collapse in on itself, like it did at shield." He walked over to Thor and patted his arm with the back of his hand. "No hard feelings, Point Break; you got a mean swing." He continued over to Fury's control panels. "It also means that Loki can hold the portal open for as big or as long as he would like." He started mumbling at the people on the other controls on the next few levels down from him. Steve was confused as to what he was doing till he shouted. "That man's play Galaga; that we wouldn't notice but we did." He trail off as he looked at Fury's controls. "How does he even see these?" He asked.

Steve pulled his phone out and kept it under the table and text Crysta. _~"It's a computer game. Remind me to show it to you later."~_

"He turns." Agent Hill told him.

"Sounds exhausting." He said before going about messing with the touch screen controls. "The rest of the materials should be fairly easy for Agent Barton to get his hands on. All he needs then is a power source. A high energy density, something to," He snap clapped his hands together, "kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysicist?" Agent Hill asked him.

"Uhhh, last night." Tony said, looking at everyone else. "Selvig's notes? Did no one else read the packet?"

_~"He's going to keep talking till someone else does."~_ Crysta told Steve, who then interrupted Tony.

"Does he need any specific power source?" Steve asked Tony.

Bruce was pacing a bit as he thought about it out loud. "He'd have to heat the cube up to 120 million kelvin just to break through the cooling barrier."

"Unless." Tony said, making his way over to Bruce. "Selvig has found a way around stabilizing the Quantum tunneling effect."

"If he can do that, then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on Earth." Bruce said.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said as he patted Bruce on the shoulder and shook his hand.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve said, confused out of his mind. He hear small laughing coming through his ear piece. _~"Don't worry, Steve, me and Clint are right there with you when it comes to all that sciency stuff."~_

Tony started to praise Bruce about his work and the fact that he could turn into the Hulk.

"Dr. Banner is only here to help track the cube, nothing more." Fury said as he walked back onto the bridge. "And I want you to help him." he said, looking at Tony.

"If I was one of you," Steve said as he looked at Bruce and Tony. "I would start at that stick of his." He looked back to Fury. "I don't know what it is but sure does act like a Hydra weapon." _~"Must be feeding off the same energy."~_ Crysta said to him.

"I don't know about that but is powered by the cube." Fury said. _~"Yes! Haha, I was right."~_ Steve was once again, trying not to smile. "And I would like to know who the hell he used it to turn two of sharpest men I know, into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked, confused. "I don't underst..."

"I do!" Steve said. Everyone was looking at him. "I actually understood that reference." He said, his voice getting lower. _~"Damn, you're cute Cap. And I love you."~_

"After you." Tony said as he held his hand out for Bruce to lead the way, becoming bored with the conversation on the bridge.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Crysta didn't realize how many secure storage sections there were on this flying death trap of a military base. As she started to go through section 10, she was half way through when she came upon something that she knew Steve would not like. She focused back on her ear piece to find the right time to get Steve away to show him what she found.

_"Loki is a man who means to start a war, if we don't stay focus__ed__ he will succeed. We have our orders, we would follow them." _Steve said_._

_ "Follow__ing__ orders isn't really my style." _Tony told him_._

Steve sighed slightly_. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"_

_ "Out of all the people here in this room, who is A) wearing a spangly outfit and B) not of use?" Tony said with a slight snap._

"Don't let him get to, Steve, please." Crysta said, hoping Steve wouldn't snap at anyone.

_"Just find the cube."_ Steve said. Crysta waited for a moment before saying something. "Steve, I found something that you should see. You're not going to like it." She told him. A moment later she got a text. _'Where are you?'_ "I'm in the Secure Storage 10 section. C I believe." She told him "I'll be waiting for you."


	5. Chapter 5

It took Steve about half an hour to find the Secure Storage 10-C section. Once he did, he used his strength to get the door open and slipped in. He quietly jumped up and made his way onto the cat walks. He followed Crysta's instructions and found her waiting on him with a small smile. They walked up to one another and embraced each other and kissed before Crysta pulled back.

"Please, don't let Stark get to you. He's just a jerk." She told him.

Steve sighed. "I know that now but he just gets on my nerves." Crysta gave him another kiss before pulling back again and taking his hand to show him what she had found. "What did you find, Crys?"

"Something from your past, that you're not going to like." She said as she stopped in front of a large wooden crate. He opened the crate, the top of it fall back behind with a thud as his mind flashes back to him and his group infiltrating Hydra bases. "Damn it, Fury." He mumbled under his breath. "This was his plan for the cube all along." He shook his head as she pulled the large Hydra gun out of the crate. "Nothing's really changed."

Crysta placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Steve."

He placed a hand over hers and just sighed. "It's not your fault. You're not the one who's trying to recreate a weapon that should be long forgotten." He picked up the top of the crate and closed it back but kept the gun out to take with him to confront Fury about it. Him and Crysta started to make their way towards the entrance of the section. "Do you know anything about this Thor character and his brother?" Steve asked out of the blue.

"All I know is that about a year ago, Thor was banished here by his father and then Loki it seems sent down a metal fire thing and started to destroy parts of New Mexico." Steve raised a brow at her. Crysta just looked at him and smiled. "I am very good at my job and watching my brother." Her face saddened a bit. _~I'm sorry I couldn't protect you this time Clint.~_ She told him. _~ "Hey, don't worry about it, I'm a big boy. I shouldn't have to relay on my sister to always get me out of trouble."~_ She could hear the sadness in his voice. She smirked sadly.

Steve was watching her after she spoke of her brother and saw the sadness in her eyes then he could see the smirk on her face. "Clint?" he asked. Remember that when she was telling him her story, that she told him about this new mind thing that seemed to open up, thanks to Loki. She nodded her head. "What did he say?"

She chuckled lightly. "That he's a big boy and that I can't always keep him from trouble." She took in a deep breath as they reached the part of the cat walk that was close to the door. "I still have someone to find and speak to about what happened. He's hard to get alone." she rubbed her face with her hands.

"Coulson?" He asked. She just nodded again. He leaned over pulled her into a hug and gave her a quick kiss. "You'll find him, it's what you're good at." He smiled. "Once this is all over, we are taking off on a vacation." He told her and she just lightly laughed. "Go on." She told him and gave him a light push on the shoulder as she stepped back and before his eyes, she was gone, up in the air vents. He shook his head as he jumped down and left the section in search of Fury.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

As Crysta made her way through the vents she looked out to see if she could see Coulson. It took her about another few minutes before she finally found him and he was talking to some other agents. She followed him till she found him in an empty room. _Finally_, she thought as she jumped down from the vents into the room, with her hood up.

Coulson just turned to her. "I was wandering when I would be see you." He said to her as he put his papers down.

"You were suppose to be watching him." She took a step forward.

"I was but we never expected for this Loki guy to show up and do what he did." Coulson sat down in a chair. "I feel terrible that he got compromised and we don't know how to get him back." He looked up at her, she still had her hood up. "Once Clint told me that something didn't feel right and that the cube was attacking out, I took action and started evacuating the people as fast as we could before calling Fury in but it would seem that Fury didn't listen to him like I did. The only thing he seemed worry about was…." He stopped talking.

"The Hydra weapons." Crysta finished for him. "Why didn't you call me once you knew he was in trouble. I gave you the number last year."

He sighed slightly. "I didn't really want to get on the bad side of a trained assassin." He smiled slightly. "Guess that did me a lot of good."

"You did fine, Phil. I'm just concern." Coulson stood up and walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get him back. I promise." She nodded but before she could say anything, her head shot to the side. "He's here." She said and ran out of the room, not bothering with the vent and just ran down the halls. Coulson followed after but went down a different hall towards Loki's prison.

As she ran down the halls, she was thrown forward into a wall caused by a huge blast and the ship starting to fall out of the sky.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Everyone was brought out of their argument when the explosion sent them flying to the ground, threw the window or below the floor. Steve jumped to his feet and looked at Tony. "Put the suit on." He rushed out.

"Yep." Tony said and ran through the ship where his suit was.

Steve ran to see if he couldn't help some people out and stop who ever it was that was attacking the ship. Crysta flashed in his thought for a quick moment. He pressed on his ear piece, not caring who heard him. "Crysta, are you alright?!" There was nothing for a moment and he started to worry till he heard her pained voice. _"I'm fine, Captain. You need to keep them from dropping this ship out of the sky."_ Crysta groaned. _"I'll take care of __Clint__."_ She growled and he didn't hear anything else from her. And because she had messed with the earpiece so that only he could hear her, everyone else was confused a bit.

Steve found his way to the opening where the explosion happened and Tony met him there, in his flying Tin Man suit, to try and fix the engine. "Who's Crysta?" Tony asked. "None of your concern, Stark. What do you need help with." He said, trying to get Tony back at the matter at hand. Tony muttered to himself as he looked at the data on his helmet screen before giving Steve an answer. "I need you to get to that Engine control panel," Tony pointed to where it was at on the other side of the wreckage, "And tell me which relays are in overload position." Then Tony flew into the engine.

It took Steve no time to get over to the control panel and pulled it out to look at it and sighed. _"What's it look like in there?"_ He heard Tony ask him. "Well, it looks like it runs on some form of electricity."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Crysta found herself back up on the catwalks and air vents. If Clint was sticking to what he new, he would be there. It wasn't long before she ran into some of his lackeys and took them down fairly quickly and easily. She wasn't able to get to Clint till after he fired an arrow that started to shut down another engine and the helicarrier shifted. She ran at him and swung at him and he ducked and the fight started. They knew each others moves, so it was slightly difficult to land a hit.

She was finally able to land a hit across his head with her bow but after he landed on the cat walk, he sent a strong kick to her stomach and she wasn't able to ketch her balance and fell off the cat walk. With nothing to grab onto, she fell onto her back, landing with a deep groan a the wind was knocked from her lungs. She got back to her feet as fast as she could. "Son of a Bitch." She groaned and followed after her brother; where she saw him turning down. _~"I am going to kick your ass, Clint."~_ She growled at him through their link. _~So sorry, Crysta._~

_ "__Going to secure the prisoner__. Need back up."_ Crysta heard Coulson voice over the earpiece. "Damn it." She fought with herself for a second about going after Clint or helping Coulson like her feelings were telling her to. "Damn it." She said again as she grabbed her bow and changed directions to head towards the cage to make sure that Coulson didn't do anything stupid.

"I'm going to help Coulson." Crysta called to Steve over the earpiece after she heard the gunfire stop. _"Be careful, Cry__s__. I'll meet there once we're done here."_ Steve told her. _"Seriously, who the hell are you talking to?"_ She heard Tony complain before she found Coulson walking into the room with which Loki was being held. She pulled her bow out and readied an arrow as she walked behind him but stayed close to the door.

"The humans proclaim us immortal. Let's test that, shall we?" Loki said as he opened the hatch under the cage that now held Thor. He moved to press the button but then Coulson stepped into view. "Step away please." He told Loki as he held up a big weird looking gun. Loki and Thor both looked at him and the gun. "You like this? We made a prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does." He stopped and got ready to fire as he pressed something on the gun and it seemed to be charging up. "Want to find out?"

That's when Crysta saw Loki also walking up behind Coulson. "Coulson!" Crysta shouted as Loki went to stab Coulson in the back with the scepter. Coulson turned to look behind him but Loki's scepter caught him in the shoulder instead of the middle of the back. Loki pulled the scepter from Coulson, allowing him to fall against the wall. Crysta fired her arrow at Loki as she ran into the room.

Loki dodged the arrow and turned to face to dare to challenge him. Crysta swung her bow at Loki but he caught it with his scepter and pulled her bow out of her hands, jerking her forward a bit and he kneed her in the stomach. Crysta wasn't going to have that, she pulled out her knives and went on attacking Loki still, not wanting him to leave this ship. She managed to send one of her knives into Loki's side and it just seemed to piss him off. He swung his scepter at her and when she went to dodge it, he quickly pulled it back and then scent a blast from the scepter at her, sending her flying into a wall.

She gasped when she hit the wall and groaned as she pulled herself up from the floor. As she looked up, ready to fight him again, she watched him press the button to drop the cage. The cage and Thor fell from the Helicarrier. She straightened up and ran at Loki but before she could attack, Loki grabbed her arm and twisted. "You remind me of someone." he said as he looked at her, her hood had now fallen after the blast. She held back a light scream as he twist her arm a little more as he thought. "Ah, now I know. You remind me of Agent Barton. He never told me about you." Loki smiled at her. "You both seem to have heart." He pulled the scepter up and touched it to her chest.


	6. Chapter 6

Coulson fired the prototype gun, while slumped in the floor against the wall, knocking Loki through a wall and away from Crysta. "So, that's what it does." he said as he looked at the hole in the wall. He glanced over to Crysta, who was trying to get back to her feet after being slightly knocked back from the blast. He did not have the privilege of knowing her name but he knew her code name. "Shadow, Shadow Hawk, are you still with me?"

Crysta's knee's buckled from under her and she was now laying on the ground, holding her head, groaning. She was trying to keep what was left of the scepter's power from reaching her mind. _~ "Let go. __Don't fight it."~_ She was hearing Loki's voice on top of a someone else's but she couldn't be for sure. "No." She whispered harshly and in pain. _~ "I'll open your mind and you will be free."~_ "No!" She yelled loudly. "Get out of my head!" She shouted in pain before she passed out.

Coulson tried to get up but stumbled back against the wall when Fury came in with some men. "What happened?!" Fury demanded.

"I'm sorry, sir. The Hostile escaped." Coulson reported with a slight groan.

Fury looked around and took notice of Crysta passed out on the floor. "And who, is that? Is she another one of Loki's puppets?"

"No sir. He tried but she fought it. I shot at Loki before he could fully take her." Coulson told him. Fury only nodded and pointed at two of his men. "Take her to the med wing and tie her down." he told them. "She's not a hostile, sir." Coulson tried to tell Fury. "We don't know that yet. We don't even know who she is or how she even got on this ship."

Before Coulson could respond, a very out of breath Steve ran into the room and started to look around. When his eyes landed on Coulson he remember that he was the last one to see Crysta and walked over to him and Fury. "Where is she?" He asked, still catching his breath.

"Where is who, Captain?" Fury asked him with a glare and Steve gave him his own glare back before looking back at Coulson.

"Loki tried to get to her but she fought it." Steve looked worried when he told him this. "Med wing, being guarded." Coulson said with painful sigh as someone finally came over to him and put pressure on his wound.

As Steve went to leave, Fury grabbed his arm. "And just where do you think you are going?" Steve pulled his arm from his grasp. "I'm going to go check on the woman, Director Sir." He started to walk away again. "She's a Hostile and how do you even know she was here? Who is she Captain?!" Fury called after him.

"She's my girlfriend." Steven called back to him before disappearing from their view.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

As Steve was arguing with the guard at Crysta's door, trying to get in, he glanced over at another door to see Natasha looking at him for a moment before turning back to who ever was in the room with her. He looked back to his guard, "She's not a hostile, damn it, she's with me!" He took in a deep breath. "Okay, look." He pierced the guard with a hard look. "Either you let me in there, or I'll make you move." He said strongly with a deadly look in his eyes that asked the guard to test him. After a moment, he finally moved out of Steve's way and allowed him in.

Once he walked into the room, his eyes hardened. Crysta was laying on a bed, strapped down to it. Her uniform was gone, she was in nothing but her leather pants and a tank top. All her weapons were laid out on a table on the other side of the room. Though when he looked at the weapons table, he started to wonder where she put it all but that was only a small second thought. He walked over to the person who was going to undo her braid and search her hair. "Alright, that's enough." He bark at them, who jumped a little as they looked up at Steve. "I was given orders to disarm the hostile..." Steve took a step forward. "She is not a hostile." He growled out. "And I'm giving you some new orders. Get. Out." He said calmly as he could though his voice held volume that he would hurt anyone who didn't listen to him at the moment.

When the guard left the room, Steve walked over to the bed and sat down on the side. He brushed some hair out of her face and noticed that she seemed paler than normal. "Oh, Crys, Darling. Why did you have to run off and be a hero?" He whispered. He was going to undo her straps but he thought better of it. He figured that he would wait to see if she was under Loki's power or not.

He didn't have to wait long before she started to wake. "Crysta? You still with me?" He watched as she smiled and giggled at his words and he seemed confused for a moment. "I'm sorry Steve." She said as she opened her eyes and looked at him. "You just made me think about a movie." He smiled at her and leaned down and took her lips with his in a deep kiss. "You scared me." He said once he pulled back. "Please don't do that again?" He asked. "I can't make any promises there Captain." She smirked. She loved to use his code name.

Crysta tried to move her hands but they wouldn't move. She looked down and noticed that she was bound to the bed. Glancing up at Steve with a slight smirk, "Steve, honey, as much as I love the fact that you are trying new things with our sex life….. would you mind untying me?" She asked as she flexed her fingers. Her smile grew bigger as she saw a small tint of a blush as he undid her bindings.

As Crysta sat up in the bed, the door to the room opened. "Hey Cap, I think I….." The man's words fell short as he looked at Crysta, who just glanced at him. "Is this her? Is she one who you've be talking to?" he looked her up and down. "Damn, I was starting thing you were going crazy in your old age. How in the hell did you get someone who looked like that?"

Steve ran a hand over his face. "I'm younger than you Stark." He mumbled. "What is that you wanted?" He called to Tony when he kept looking at Crysta, who got up and started to put her weapons and uniform back on. "Uh, right. I know where Loki's going and we need to get to him before he opens that portal. I'm sorry..." Tony said as he kept looking at Crysta. "But who are you?"

Crysta just glanced at him from over her shoulder with a slight smirk. "I'm Shadow Hawk, Steve's girlfriend. I also go by Crysta." She went back to her stuff. Steve also took noticed that she didn't say anything about being a Barton and figured it was just part of their code.

"Shadow Hawk? Really?" He chuckled. "Are you like Hawkeye's shadow or something?" Tony chuckled. "Yes." was her only answer and it shut Tony up. Steve smiled at that. "Well, I guess I'll go suit up and meet you at Stark Town." He said before he left.

Crysta walked over to Steve, "Go see if you can't find someone to fly a Quin-jet. I'll finish up here." She gave him a quick kiss before walking back to the table.

Steve left the room and walked across the hall to where he saw Natasha earlier and opened the door. He only say her and not who she was speaking to, it seemed. "Hey, can you fly one of those jet things?" She just looked at him before Clint walked out of the bathroom. "I can." Clint stated as he looked at Steve. Steve glanced at Natasha to make sure Clint was himself once again and got a nod. "You got a uniform?" he asked. "Yeah." Clint nodded. "Then suit up." He told him before he left to go find his shield.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

As Clint, Steve and Natasha were walking down towards the Quin-jet, Clint started to wonder how Crysta was doing and was wondering why he hadn't seen her yet. _~You haven't seen me in fifteen years, would you even know me if you saw me?~_ Clint stopped short for a moment and when Steve and Natasha looked at him, he just shook his head. _~ "So this is still a thing?" ~_ He had a slight smirk on his lips. _~Yeah, probabl__y__ the only good thing to have come from this mess.~_ When Clint started to pay attention to where he was at that moment, he noticed that someone was trying to stop them from entering the jet.

"Son," Steve said with a raise hand and a tired but authoritative voice. "Just don't." he shook his head just slightly as he said that.

Clint looked at the kid before walking around them all to get the jet ready as the kid and another person left the jet. As he sat down in the pilot seat he caught something out of the corner of his eye in the co-pilot seat and a smirk come on his face as his hand still worked on the jet. "Wondering when you were going to show up." She told him and he just chuckled.

Natasha came up to set in the co-pilot seat but saw someone there. "Who are you?" She asked sharply. Natasha was taking her all in, from her outfit to her hair and eye color. Since Crysta's hood was down, Natasha was able to really see her and she noticed that she looked very much like someone she knew very well.

Crysta just looked up at her and smiled slightly. "I'm Shadow Hawk." was all she said to her before turning back around and helping Clint prep the jet.

"We ready yet?" Steve asked as he came up next to Natasha. "Almost Cap." Crysta responded to him like it was an everyday thing to be working with him.

"I'm sorry," Natasha said as she looked between Steve and Crysta. "Do you know her, Rogers?"

Natasha looked at everyone and then glared slightly at Clint. "Am I the only one who doesn't know who she is? Can she even hold her own in a fight?" She heard snickering from both Clint and this 'Shadow Hawk' and her glare hardened.

_~It's up to you tell her. Stark's seen me and knows my name but he doesn't know I'm a Barton. I'll leave that for you.~ _Crysta told Clint as she closed the hatch and started the jet up.

"She's my sister, Tash." Clint told Natasha as he glanced back at her before starting to take off in the Quin-jet.

"I'm sorry, sister? Why haven't you told me about her before?" She asked with her arms crossed. "I thought you didn't have any family but your brother." Steve was sitting on one of the back seats, not wanting to get in the middle of this one.

Crysta glanced at Clint. _~You told her about __Barney__?~_ Clint only flick his gaze at her. _~ "He came after me and Natasha was there to help."~_ Crysta was silent for a moment. _~I remember that, I had to watch your back when she couldn't. You almost got yourself killed that day. But that still doesn't explain why she knows that he's family.~ ~ "Hey called me out on it before the fight ever began."~_ Crysta took that with a slight nodded of her head.

"It's part of our code, Tash." Clint finally answered. "If it wasn't for Trickshot calling me out on being his brother….. you never would have known about him." _~Trickshot? __R__eally? That's what he's going by now?~_ Crysta chuckled in Clint's mind with a small smirk on her lips. Clint just nodded with a slight smirk himself.

"He's not really one of the family members you go about talking about to anyone anyway." Crysta said, she shook her head slightly as she lost her smirk.

Once the jet left the base, Crysta got up to allow Natasha to sit in the co-pilot seat with Clint. She walked into the back and sat down next to Steve. "So." Steve started. "Is that still there?" He asked her as he pointed to his head and got a smile and a nod from her. "Guess it comes in handy." He stated.

"Oh yeah. Never have to leave the room for a private conversation but we're always going to be there. We can see and hear what the other is thinking and doing if we concentrate on them. I've already done it with Clint before while he was still with Loki." She glanced at Clint and her hand came up to her chest and rubbed slightly. Before Steve could ask if she was okay, she spoke. "After I woke up, it seemed easier." She looked at Steve with a question in her eyes.

"I still love you, Crysta. This isn't going to push me away." He reached out and wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into a hug.

Before anything else could be said or done, Natasha was swearing. "We're too late." Steve and Crysta got up and went to the front to see out the window and saw that the portal was open and they had hundreds of Aliens raining down upon them. They saw Iron Man flying with some on his tail. Natasha got on the open come of the earpiece. "Stark, we're on your three, heading northeast." _"__What, did you stop for drive thru on your way? Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you."_ Tony said to them.

Hang on." Clint told them and turned sharply towards Park and started to fire the weapon's system and taking out as many of the Aliens as he could. He flew up and around Stark Tower, killing them as he went. As they got to the top, they say Thor and Loki in a heated fight. "Nat." Clint called. "Got him." She told him. Clint turn the ship and as soon as Thor was clear, Natasha opened fired on Loki. It do anything to him but make him angrier. He shot a blast from his scepter at the Jet, blowing an engine. Clint tried to keep control of the jet but was failing. "Hang on!" He told them. Everyone braised themselves just before the jet skidded to a stop.

Everyone groaned after the landing. Clint and Natasha unbuckled themselves as quickly as they could and looked back at Steve and Crysta, who were picking themselves up. "That was one of your better landings, brother dear." Crysta told Clint, think with sarcasm. Steve hit the button to open the hatch and they all ran out, looking to see where they were. Once they saw the Stark Tower, they took off towards it. "We've got to get back up there." Steve told them as they ran towards the building.


	7. Chapter 7

Crysta, Clint, Steve, and Natasha quickly made their way back towards Stark Tower. There were only a few blocks away when they all quickly came to a stop when they heard a loud grumbling roar coming from the sky which caused them to look up in disbelief and slight fear. What they watch come from the portal could only be described as an armored whale swimming through the air.

"Space whales? Really?" Crysta spoke as it flew down close to the ground and right over them and more aliens started to deploy from the underside of the whale as it went along the city.

"Stark, you seeing this?" Steve called to Tony. _"Seeing, still working on believing."_ Tony told them. _"__Has Banner shown up yet?"_ He asked them. Steve looked at the others. "Banner?" he questioned Tony. _"Never mind, just keep me posted."_ And that was all they got out of Stark for the time.

Crysta looked around and saw the hell that the new arrivals were causing. "We need to get these people out of the builds and off the streets before any more damage is done." Crysta told them. They started to help clear the bridge of people who maybe trapped or too scared to move. Once they the bridge was cleared, they all took shelter behind some upside down cars as more aliens swarmed down and started firing on the people in the builds below the street they were on. "They're fish in a barrel down there." Steve stated. They ducked from a low flying group before Clint and Crysta popped up and fired an arrow each to kill some, Natasha shooting at some. "You two go, me and Clint got this." Natasha told Steve; who looked at Crysta as she fired another arrow, then to Clint. "Think you can hold them off?"

"Captain," Clint started, as he messed with his bow to change out the tips of his arrows in its quiver, "It would be my genuine pleasure." He jumped up and aimed for the middle of a group of aliens that were looking for anyone on the bridge that they were on. Once the arrow stuck in its head, small little flairs shot out of the arrow head at anything around it; killing most of the group. _~ "Go on, we got this."~_ Clint told Crysta.

Both Crysta and Steve looked at one another, with a nod they both ran and jumped off the bridge onto the top of a bus and took off running to avoid being shot by the aliens. "You need to tell the authorities to start helping and stop shooting. I'll start getting some people out of here." Crysta told him as they were running down the road and jumping over cars and debris. She cut off from Steve and went to help some people who were just hiding behind or under cars before they could get even more hurt.

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Once all the people that were closest to the Stark Tower had been cleared out, Crysta went to help Clint and Natasha where they were being ambushed by shooting two arrows at once at the ones that were sneaking up of them. Steve came out of nowhere and started to help fight off the last few. Before Crysta could take out anymore, Thor's lightning took out what was left on the bridge. Thor himself came in with a stumble landing as he came together with the others. Crysta was not that far behind him, pick arrows up out of the dead Chitauri bodies.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked as they came closer together.

"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor told them.

_"Thor's right."_ Everyone heard Tony tell them. Clint walked over to Crysta and she handed him his arrows back as he handed her arrows back to her. _"__We gotta deal with these guys.__"_ Tony asked them.

"How are we going to do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team." Steve told her.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor told Steve, as if it took matter over what was going on at that moment.

Clint and Crysta both looked over at him. "Yeah? Well, get in line." They both told him together as they over looked their weapons.

"Save it." Steve told them as he came closer to Clint and Crysta. He looked at Crysta real quick and she gave him a nod, letting him know that she was okay, before he continued a little past them to get a better look towards the tower. "Loki's going to keep this fight on us and that's why we need to keep them away from the civilians."

"Especially with these things running wild." Crysta said as she put her arrows away.

"Okay, we have Stark up top. He's going to…." Steve was cut off by the sound of a motor approaching them. They all looked towards the sound to find Bruce coming towards them. "I'll be." Steve mumbled to himself before they all walked over to Bruce.

"Well," Bruce started as he looked around. "This all seems... horrible." He told them.

"I've seen worse." Natasha told him.

Bruce looked a bit ashamed and apologetic. "Sorry." Crysta just raise a brow and leaned over closer to whisper to Clint. "Ever get the feeling like you missed out on something big?" He only smirked and nodded his head lightly as he watched and listened to the others.

"No, we could us a little worse." Natasha told him. "Thanks." was Bruce only reply he could think up for that.

"Stark." Steve called to Tony. "We got him." _"Banner"_ "Just like you said." Steve said, still surprised that he even showed up at all. _"Well, tell him to suit up. I'm bring__ing__ the party to you."_ They all seem to look at one another, trying to figure out what Tony was talking about till he came flying around the corner of a build a few blocks down with the space Chitauri whale following him.

"I...I don't see how that's a party." Natasha said. Everyone else was thinking about along the same line.

"Clearly you've never met Wade Wilson." Crysta mumbled. Everyone glanced at her. _~Who?~_ She just shook her head at Clint's question. _~ "Another time."~_ She told him as she watched Bruce walked towards the incoming space whale as it tried to fly along the road.

"Doctor Banner," Steve called to him when he saw him walking. When Bruce turned to look at him, he spoke again. "Now might be a good time to get angry." He stated.

Bruce just smiled slightly. "That's my secret Cap. I'm always angry." As he turned back around to meet face to face with the Chitauri whale, he turned into the Hulk and slammed his fist into its face. The shock wave from the hit brought the body of the whale up and it start splintering off its armor.

Tony saw a clean shot and took. _"Take cover"_ Tony told them just before the launched an explosive at it.

Since Crysta was closer to Clint, she grabbed him and pulled him behind a car. Steve pulled his shield up over himself and covered Natasha. Once the explosion cleared they all stood up and looked around as the Chitauri all around the city started screaming at the Avengers.

Everyone came back together, looking around them as they listened to the screams of the Chitauri echo off the builds from around the city. Everyone readied their weapons, all trying to think of a plan. That's when Natasha looked up and saw more coming through the portal. "Uh...guys?" She said, gaining their attention.

"More space whales." Crysta said as she brushed her fingers over her hair real quick and found some guts from earlier in her hand and shuttered as she flung it the ground.

"It's really a leviathan, my lady." Thor corrected her. "One fitted for the Chitauris needs."

"Terrific." Clint grumbled.

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The battle was not easy. Everyone was split up, trying to make sure that the Chitauri stayed close to the tower but there were too many. Tony was doing his best to keep the Chitauri chasing him and trying to take them out while the Hulk ran about the city trying to take care of the Leviathans. Steve was on the streets by himself, fending off as many as he could while Natasha was trying to get to the top of the tower to find a way to shut down the portal. Clint was helping them as much as he could from on top of the build and taking out as many as he could with his arrows. Crysta found herself taking out the Chitauri that had made their way towards the evacuating civilians.

_"Stark, you got a lot sniffing your tail."_ Clint called over the coms. _"Yep, I've noticed that. __Just trying to keep them off the streets.__"_ Tony responded back to him. _"__That was the plan….right?"_ Tony was just rambling as he looked for a way to lose the Chitauri. _"Well, they can't bank worth a damn."_ Clint said, while taking out another flying Chitauri. _"I will roger that."_ Tony said thankfully and went about finding any tight corners.

Crysta was making her way back up towards the man part of the battle when she heard something that sounded like engines and when she saw lights heading her way, she ducked quickly behind a care just as Iron Man came flying out of a build and a Chitauri craft exploded on next build across the street. "Watch where you're flying those things, Stark." Crysta told him as she pulled herself back up and continued on her way.

_"Sorry about that."_ Tony came flying back towards her and picks her up with a slight surprise yelp from her. _"Need a lift?"_ He asked and you could hear the smirk.

"Why yes, thank you, my knight in dented and chipped armor." Crysta just rolled her eyes before Tony dropped her off close to where some Chitauri were closing in on more civilians. _"Now be careful __other hawk__."_ Tony called out to her as she ran to help. She only flipped him off and he chucked as he flew back into the air. _"Alright Barton, good call with earlier. Got anything else for me?"_

Crysta was doing her best to get the civilians down to the nearest subway station as she kept the Chitauri off of them and from following. Once the army started to show up, she told them that there was still people too scared to get out of the builds. She left them to fend for the civilians and she started to make her way back toward the others to help them.

_"Captain, the bank on 42__nd__ just past Madison. __There's a lot of civilian's in there." _Clint told him. _"I'm on it."_ Steve confirmed.

Crysta saw another group of Army person ale and quickly gathered them up to follow her to the bank so Steve wouldn't have to worry about getting the people out. "I'm on my way to you, Cap. With back up for the civilian's." She told him as she jumped on one of their tanks for a quick ride. _~You little cheat.~_ She heard Clint yell at her. _~"Says the one who gets to stay in place and fight."~_ Crysta fired back at him. They were just around the block when an explosion came from the bank area. She jumped from the tank and ran ahead with a few men.

Steve's pained filled grunts came over the ear piece. "Oo….ooow." Crysta just came around the corner just in time to see Steve pull himself from the car that was somewhat wrapped around his body. She ran to him while the army ran to the people in the bank to get them out. Crysta quickly took notice that Steve no longer had his helmet as she walked up to him and looked him over for any heavy damage. After seeing none, she smiled just slightly. "Well, I guess we can check off 'being blown out of a window into a car' off the list of things I've never done before."

He huffed a laugh and shook his head. "Well, you still haven't done it." He smirked. She just smiled back at him and chuckled lightly. "I'm three years ahead of you, my dear."

_~Why the hell didn't I know about you getting hurt from something like that?!~ _Clint yelled in her head. She just rolled her eyes. _~"I'm pretty sure I was keeping you out of trouble and safe."~ _She saw that Steve noticed her small exchange and shook his head.

"We need to keep our focus and hope that Agent Romanov finds a way to close that portal." Steve said before huffing a small sigh. "Let's get back to the fight." Crysta nodded and they both head off to find more Chitauri to take care of.


	8. Chapter 8

After more than an hour of fighting and trying to keep the Chitari in one area, it was becoming tiring. Tony Stark was stumbling in his suit and was caught off guard every now and then. Thor was just about over powered but even the strain was beginning to show on the God. Steve was doing his best to keep up with everything that was coming at them and took a few blast to the stomach and chest. Clint was calling shots, trying to do what he could from his roof top, Natasha trying to figure a way to shut off the portal. Hulk was some where around the city, taking out as many alien's as he could. Crysta had finally gotten most of the streets and buildings cleared and was making her way towards Thor and Steve, taking out as many of the Chitari as she could and collecting arrows along the way.

As Crysta made her way over to the two men on the ground when she was knocked down from a blast in the back of her shoulder. "Crysta!" _~Crysta!~_ There was a shout of her name in her head and over the com link, both from Clint. "Crys? Where is she? What happened?" Steve started up when he heard Clint's cry. _~"I'm okay, Clint. Just stings."~_ She told Clint and reached her hands out to lift herself up when her hand touched one of their blasting staffs. She could hear them coming up on her. She grabbed the staff and rolled onto her back and blasted them in the face, grunting from the pain in her shoulder. "Bastard." She grunted out as she dropped the staff and just breathed.

"At least you're alive, my Lady." Thor said as he stood over Crysta's body. He reached a hand down to her and she took it as she bit back groans of pain and stood up with his help. She bent over and grabbed the staff that she dropped. "This thing comes in handy." She said with a strained smile. "You most certainly can handle yourself." She nodded as she saw another one coming towards them. "We still have work to do." Thor nodded at her and flew with his hammer to attack.

Crysta looked up at the building that Clint was at and saw the Chitarui crawling all over it, trying to get to him. _~"Behind you!"~_ She should shouted at him when she saw the swarm heading towards his roof top. Clint looked behind him after he kicked on of the aliens off the build after he ran out of arrow. _~Ah Shit.~_ He quickly looked around for an arrow. Once he had one, he changed the head of it and jumped from the roof. Crysta was too busy with her own swarm to watch him but she did take noticed of the pain in her back. _~"Clint?!"~ ~I'm safe now, just landed on my quiver.~ _She sighed in relief.

The swarms just kept coming and they were all having trouble staying on their feet but they kept on fighting. "_I can close the portal. Can anyone here? I can close the portal._" "Do it." Steve yelled as he came over to Crysta to help her up from here she had some how been thrown into a building. Crysta just gave him a nod as she caught her breath.

"_No, wait."_ Tony's voice came over the coms. "Stark." _"Look, I have a n__u__ke__ heading straight for the city and I know just where to put it."_ Tony's said, stopping Steve from saying anything. Steve looked at Crysta before speaking again. "You know that's a one way trip, right?" Crystal looked up to where she saw Tony guiding the missile from under it. _"Just don't start the after party without me." _Then he was gone. She fought her was through some of the rest of the Chitarui to get to Steve and Thor then in the next moment, all the Chitarui just dropped. She looked around her, making sure none of them were moving before running over bodies towards Steve, glancing up at the portal that was still open in the sky.

"Close it." Steve said, you could hear the hurt in his voice as he gave the order. Crysta was next to him now as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He glanced over at her as the portal started to close. They both looked up to watch it close all the way when they saw Stark come out of it just as it closed. "Son of a gun." He smiled but it was short lived. "He's falling too fast." Crysta said, worried. Thor got ready to fly up there to catch him but Hulk jumped out of no where and caught Stark, bringing him down with a slightly ruff landing.

Steve, Crysta, and Thor ran over towards Hulk where he tossed Tony down at. Thor reached them first and ripped Tony's face shield off. Steve knelt down to check him over but didn't know to really do that with all his armor on.

"His reactor." Crysta whispered and Steve moved his hand to see what she was talking about and noticed that it was glowing. He leaned back against Crysta, who had walked up behind him, as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

The Hulk watched them and looked down at Tony, slightly angry that he had made their new friends sad and yelled at him. Tony gasped for air as his reactor started pack up. The Hulk smiled, thinking he stopped the Metal Man from playing games with his new friends.

"Please tell me no one kissed me." Tony said as he looked around at the people around him. They all gave him a slight smile. "What the hell happened?"

"We won." Steve said. "Oh thank G…." Tony said, tailing off as he let his head fall back. "Oh yay… good job guys. Lets...lets just not come into work tomorrow. Let's all call in sick." Tony tried to lift his head but it was hard since his suit was dead. "I'm hungry. Are you hungry? Let's try Shawarma, I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

Thor sighed as he listened to Tony ramble. "We are not done yet." He said as he looked up to Stark tower. "Then Shawarma after." Tony said.

Everybody helped one another picking themselves up and making their way back to Stark Tower. On their way there, they met up with Clint; that's when Crysta left Steve's side and went over to him. "Everything all good? I can't tell who's pain is whose." Crysta said laughing slightly. Clint just gave her side smile. "Yeah, I completely know the feeling." They both laughed as they made their way back over to the small group as they entered the Tower.

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After finally locking Loki up, they had all ignored Fury as he told them they had to do paper work. Bruce was back to being human, Tony was out of his armor, and Thor didn't have his cape. They walked down what was left of the streets of New York to a Shawarma joint that Tony had seen while fighting.

Tony order a bit of everything and paid them well over the amount was due. They had all helped with gather what chairs and tables that were too badly damaged and put them together and sat around it. Clint and Crysta sat side by side with their back leaning against one another while facing their other halves and they both had a leg up on Natasha and Steve's chair. Tony and Bruce sat next to one another and Thor at the other end of the table. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the papers that the Shawarma sat on or the sweeping and cleaning from the owners. This had been their only quiet moment in a long while and no one dared to break the silence.

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It took a few days to get all the paper work that Fury wanted done done. An in those few days, Tony and Bruce worked on a way to use the cube to open a link from earth to Asgard so Thor could take Loki back with him and get him off this world.

Everybody gathered together to say goodbye to Thor and to make sure that Loki didn't get left behind. Steve and Crysta were standing off to the side with Clint and Natasha, waiting on Tony and Bruce to bring the Tesseract. Once they got there, everyone gathered close to Thor and Loki and listened to Thor say fair well. _~An__d__ thanks for all the fish.~ _Crysta said to Clint, who's eye twitch just a little as he tried not to laugh. _~We could just keep Loki here and use him as target practice.~_ She told him with a slight smile as she looked at Loki. Natasha turned her back to Loki and Thor. "You never did get that arrow in his eye." She whispered. That statement combined with Crysta's made him smirk at Loki as well. _~"Remind me to never piss you two off."~_

Everyone parted ways after watching the light show that took Thor and Loki away from earth. Clint and Natasha walked towards a S.H.I.E.L.D. car while Crysta joined Steve on his bike while Tony and Bruce took off back towards his labs.

"See ya around, Sis." Clint called after her as he opened the door of the car.

"Please do stay out of trouble, brother. I do have a life now." She said to him with a smile as she wrapped her arms around Steve's stomach. Clint just shook his head and laughed lightly.

"You better be careful with that one, Cap."

"Why? You going to hurt me?" Steve asked.

Clint laughed this time. "No, she'll hurt you." He said before getting into the car and driving off.

Steve and Crysta just smiled as they watched them drive off. "Where to?" Steve asked her.

She shook her head. "Don't know and don't care. I need a vacation and that's what you promised me." She leaned into his back.

"Yes ma'am." Steve smiled before drive away and making his way out of the city.


End file.
